Rajya Sabha passes Bill to allow trusts to apply for SEZs
The Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019, will replace an ordinance that was promulgated in March, just days before the announcement of the polls.
Six Rajya Sabha nominees, three from ruling AIADMK and three from DMK were on Thursday elected unopposed to the Upper House from Tamil Nadu. 
Congress’s Jairam Ramesh asked the government about the urgency of taking the ordinance route, and asked Goyal how many applications had been received since the ordinance.
A day after Lok Sabha passed a Bill to allow trusts to get permission for Special Economic Zones (SEZ), the Upper House on Thursday passed the Bill with a voice vote. Similar concerns were raised by members of the Opposition as had been raised in the Lower House, and Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal countered the concerns with arguments similar to those he had made on Wednesday.
The Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019, will replace an ordinance that was promulgated in March, just days before the announcement of the polls. This was one of the main issues raised by the Opposition. Several leaders asked why the ordinance was required so close to the elections.
Congress’s Jairam Ramesh asked the government about the urgency of taking the ordinance route, and asked Goyal how many applications had been received since the ordinance. “You can mistrust the trust, you cannot trust a trust,” he said. A trust, he added, “like shell company is a very dangerous word”.
Other leaders like DMK’s T K S Elangovan said the use of ordinance is an “insult to Parliament”. Prasanna Acharya of BJD said all governments were becoming “habituated” to ordinances.
Dismissing their apprehensions, the minister said SEZs had generated 20 lakh jobs, brought investments worth Rs 5 lakh crore, with exports worth Rs 7 lakh crore by the end of March 2019. He told the House that eight applications from trusts from “reputed companies” have already been received with a total investment potential of Rs 8,000 crore.
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